St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-06-08
A SNAKE FARM.
How the Rattlesnakes Have Made
Can't. Slower Rich

capt. slower RiCh.
Near the little town of Cation, ILL.,, a
man carries on very strange business
no less than the raising of rattlesnakes
as commercial commodity. A cores
pondent, who recently visited the place,
tells of his experiences. The farm is
owned aud managed by Capt. Dan Sto-
yer and wife, assisted by William Dunn,
agent at the Illinois Central depot. 1t
might be surmised that the breeding and
propagation of rattlesnakes and other
reptiles was not only dangerous but
unpleasant occupation. However, these
poor but honest people have learned
that there is money in snakes, and last
year they cleared almost enough from
their sales to pay the expenses of the
family of four.
''WhO buys rattlesnakes, and what on
earth do they want with them?" you
ask. Why, for use in the manufacture
of the new cure of rheumatism. A firm
in Philadelphia uses the oil in their
remedy, and pays good price for every
rattleSnake delivered at their laboratory.
Mr.. Slower has contracted with the firm
to furnish them $50 of that species dur
ing the present season at 1928 each,
none to measure less than four feet in
length, or to be less than six years of
age. The older the snake the better
and stronger the oil.
Sunday the sun shone out bright and
warm, which brought out the snakes in
large numbers to bask in the warm rays,
and, as Mr.. Slower said, would be a good
day to take q stroll Ovei ''rattlesnake
forty" Procuring good stout stick
and DOMINIC heavy pair of boots, your
correspondent joined Slower and Dunn
N ic nIy
new man in the snake business, and has
had several narrow escapes from being
bitten by the deadly reptiles, but he is
learning fast. To show us how easy it
is to kill snake, he picked up
blue racer by the tail that
was lying cOiled up in the sunlight, in
a half cOmatOSe condition, and giving it
a couple of whirls over his head in
lightning manner, he cracked it like a
whip, causing its head to part from its
body and spin through the air. Pro-
ceeding little further we came to ''the
mounds" little raised places on the
snake farm, where the snakes burrow
in winter and breed in summer. There
farm, and on the south side of one of
the largest of these, where they could
get the full benefit of the sun, lay coiled
up, sound asleep, fOrty-three large
rattleSnakeS, seven black snakes and
numerous other smaller reptiles, not
one of which seemed to recognize our
presence. Slower and Dunn do not kill
off the whole crop yearly, but leave
many for breeding purposes.
why" said the former, that mound
there contains probably dozen nests of
eggs, and each nest at least ten eggs. |
have found nests that contained as
high as eighteen young rattlers,
the largest not over two inches
size of those of a partridge, but have
soft shell. The farm is a tract of virgin
prairie and has never seen pillow, and
Dan says in summer its native grass is
very high, rendering it an excellent
place for the reptiles to hide in.
After retiring to the house, the two
snake breeders exhibited string of
rGttleS several feet in length, which
they captured last summer. the whole
footing up 76S rattles. Some of the
snakes possessed twenty-five rattles and
button, each rattle counting year to
its age and the button a fraction of a
year.
Mrs. Slower also had in box of saw
dust under a cook stove twenty-seven
rattlesnake eggs, which, she said, would
begin to hatch in few days, after
which event the children would be kept
busy catching flies to feed the tiny pets.
Slower and Dunn mad several pet rat
tiers around the house, which are as
harmless as kittens, made so by their
poison sac having been removed from
the roofs of their mouths and their
fangs clipped with pincers,all this being
done while the snakes were under the
influence of chloroform. They have no
equal as mice eXterminators, and in the
summer keep the place free from bugs,
flies and bad boys.
1t is needless to say the neighbors'
children do not trouble the Slower
household or their premises.
Besides supplying the Philadelphia
firms for their use, the breeders have
filed orders for different parties in all
parts of the country, mostly physicians.
A doctor of st. Louis took several Live
pairs last summer at IS per pair.